


Love's Like Blood in Water

by starrelia



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Canon, Canon-Typica Violence, Cisgender, F/M, Transgender Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-04 03:06:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6638788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrelia/pseuds/starrelia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Timothy thinks it's more than a little weird that Nisha takes notice of him almost immediately and seems intent on him. Or maybe it's only him who finds this weird. </p><p>Well, whatever the reason is, as long as she isn't killing him then he's more than fine with this. All he cares about is getting off of Elpis alive, and getting paid and then immediately going home -- or, or at least be able to go back home, be himself again, and pay off his student loans. Is that too much to ask for?</p><p>Because apparently, it is. He didn't ask for any of this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love's Like Blood in Water

**Author's Note:**

> I'm in love with you, and it pisses me off.
> 
>  
> 
> **Edit: Sex scene has been edited out.**

It’s a sort of weird thing to take notice of. Or maybe it’s only Timothy who thinks it’s weird; whatever it is, he thinks it’s a little weird that the first thing he takes notice of is how Nisha stares at him when he crashes in from an independent shuttle. There’s confusion in her eyes first, wide and gorgeous that he can’t help but stare, before the confusion gives ‘way to complete and utter amusement.

But their staring at each other [uncomfortably] doesn’t last long, because they’re interrupted by Claptrap – the one introducing them, not the Fragtrap with them - soon enough and told the grimness of the situation.

Dahl has attacked, and Timothy’s hands are shaking and so is his everything else. He swallows loudly, tries not to bring attention to himself, and he trails after Wilhelm and Nisha and their confident poses to give himself some semblance of cover.

Aurelia strides next to him, a sniper rifle in her hand and a pistol at her side, and Fragtrap is cheerfully rolling along.

Even with Fragtrap around, Timothy is pitifully out of place, and he doesn’t think he’ll be able to survive more than a minute here. Barely a minute into his new job and he’s already **_dying._** Well, at least he doesn’t have to-

A strong arm wraps around his shoulder and forces him to bend uncomfortably, and he finds himself face-to-face with Nisha’s smug face. “New to this, aren’tcha?” she asks, and Timothy feels his throat go dry and his eyes widen with the utter surprise and panic at being this close to a girl.

Warmth spreads throughout his limbs and settles in his gut and he nods, ashamed, after a while when Nisha drags him along the – thankfully – empty area they crashed in. “Hah! Thought so. You’re drier than a fish outta water; but don’t worry about it. _The lawbringer’s got’cha covered, honey._ Just watch and learn.”

Her words aren’t comforting. They’re mean and smug, proud and show-offy in a way that Jack would approve of and probably already does, given how greets everyone individually and lingers on Timothy and Nisha.

He flirts with Timothy, briefly, and he shoves aside how weird it is that his employer is flirting with his doppelganger before Jack’s immediately flirting with Nisha, whose arm isn’t around him anymore and not forcing him to bend down.

But still… despite the mockery that hid underneath her words, Timothy feels something comfortable settle on the back of his neck and he exhales heavily.

Watching and learning should be easy; _‘I mean,’_ he thinks, _‘I come from a planet of murderers too. Using a gun is as easy as breathing to a lot of folk.’_

He’s never been in a real gunfight, and Timothy’s going to have to learn soon enough how to deal with the actual heat and fire of battle.

Surprisingly… it’s easy to adapt to shooting. It’s still terrifying as hell and Timothy is having heart attacks thinking about how difficult life is going to be now, but he’s able to get into the sort of groove and music that everyone else has settled for themselves. He has, however, learnt that rocket launchers should never be thrown his way and he _honestly_ hates them.

Breathing in deep, the smell of ash and smoke and burnt flesh fill his nose and Timothy sputters and coughs. He buries his mouth into the crook of his arm, his entire body _lurching_ from the wretched smell, and Timothy hacking and wheezing even as a Dahl baddie approaches him.

His hands are busy, he doesn’t have a shield just yet and his body is far too irritated by the foreign and awful smells to really try and react. The guy’s running around, trying to get away from the brunt of Aurelia’s or Athena’s fire, and he briefly aims Timothy’s way with his shotgun.

Yeah. Yeah he’s… he’s so dead.

The guy’s head explodes, a bullet piercing through his helmet when he turns just right, and Timothy recoils and falls on his ass. Bile rises to his throat briefly, palm pressing hard against his mouth, and Nisha’s boots come into view. He looks up, sees her with a rifle in her arms and a sly smirk on her face, and Timothy pales.

“Fair to say, kid, you owe me.” Nisha says, and Timothy’s throat is going dry again.

He isn’t good with women. Jack is. He swallows and stutters, fumbling for his words, and finally speaks in a rushed voice. “Well, babe, _you—_ you can _count me_ as… as on your calling list.” He babbles out, heart slamming against his ribcage and rattling it, and Nisha laughs.

“Hey, pretty boy, be yourself, huh? Leave the Jack to Jack.” She mocks and turns around to leave, and Timothy watches her retreating back for a bit longer and swallows the lumps in his throat. Athena approaches him after a while and offers him her hand, and Timothy stands up with her help and looks away from her intense gaze.

“Don’t let her bring you down.” Athena says, voice monotone yet firm, and Timothy looks at her and watches her leave too. Aurelia’s passing by him, hilariously tall in her crazy heels, and he trails after her to where Nisha, Wilhelm and Fragtrap are waiting for them.

This is going to be a long trip already.

* * *

Meeting Janey is… eventful. She lets it clearly show that she’s interested in only women, but that still doesn’t stop Timothy from stuttering because she’s… she’s pretty, in the way she holds herself confidently despite her scars, and he can’t help but stutter and stumble around her like he does with Nisha and Athena (but not Aurelia, for some reason).

She gravitates to Athena like a moth to the light and he sees the way Athena’s cheeks dust a light pink as she doesn’t push Janey away. Nisha’s snorting, not really giving them much attention, and Wilhelm is off in his own corner ignoring everyone else. He idles by Nisha, unsure of what to do just yet, and Timothy feels her staring at him.

Shyly, he looks over to Nisha and there’s a relaxed, lazy look on her face. “Hey there, handsome; I see you’re still alive! Ain’t that fantastic?” she says, but there’s nothing malicious in her voice this time. It’s more her natural tone of voice than anything else, and that makes Timothy’s shoulders slump and he exhales softly. “The good thing with you around is now, I can get _triple_ the eye-candy. I’m one lucky gal.”

Even though he knows it’s aimed at Jack than him, Timothy flushes from her words and looks away, his hands sinking deep into Jack’s… kind of small jean pockets (or it may be because Jack’s hands are large) and he tries not to shrug. “Anyone’s lucky to get to look at me, sweetcheeks.” The words fumble out of him, sounding foreign and weird, and Nisha chokes on her laughter.

“What did I tell you, kiddo?” Nisha snorts out. “Leave the Jack to Jack, huh? I mean, that was a good attempt still, you’re getting _better_ at this acting gig, but that just doesn’t suit ya now.”

Timothy continues to not look at her, and Nisha’s patting his back in amusement and the very light touch makes him jolt and tremble slightly.

He is _really_ bad at women, and he wonders when Nisha’ll realise this. Or maybe she already has, and she’s using it to her advantage which… makes sense. This is the lawbringer; she isn’t exactly nice, and Timothy isn’t expecting it either.

But still, Timothy doesn’t expect it when Nisha grabs at his elbow and drags him along with her when Janey shows them around. She has a firm grp on his elbow still, even as Janey’s done showing them the ‘Moon Zoomy’ station [where they’re going to get their vehicles] and even when she’s done giving them the mission she wants them to do.

Nisha only lets go when they have to _finally_ go on a mission, and Timothy’s heart has leapt in his throat and is currently hammering against his esophagus. His mind is jumbled and his entire body is warm and flush with the sensation of Nisha’s hands on his elbow, so ridiculously small in comparison to Jack’s giant physique, and Timothy tries to shove the feeling away.

Janey’s waving at him when she notices his discomfort, and when Timothy gives her a simple wave she’s immediately distracted by Athena and the way she’s… standing there. Instant infatuation indeed, and Timothy doesn’t blame Janey in the slightest.

He digistructs one of the guns he’s acquired out, eyes falling onto his meager shield on his hip and then looks back up outside where he doesn’t have an Oz Kit yet to freely wander in. Excitement flashes across Nisha’s face as they’re getting ready to step outside in the zero atmosphere, and Timothy wonders what kind of mess he’s gotten himself into.

Life decides to answer him by throwing kraggons their way – _badass_ kraggons at that – and he’s trying his hardest not to yell in panic as he tries to fight the badasses off. Who—who decided to create badass kraggons, huh? He can barely handle the normal kraggons that are running around, annoying buggers that are definitely going to be the death of him, and Timothy’s relying on his digiJacks a bit too much.

Because who needs a hero, right? Well. Well Timothy does. He needs like, fifty heroes if you won’t mind. Everyone else is busy with their own kraggons and desperate need to breathe – running in and out of the oxygen bubble provided for them – as they try to deal with the low gravity.

Shooting in low grav is really weird, but Timothy is warming up to it soon enough—or, rather, not really warming up to it because it’s really _cold_ and right now is no time to be pedantic about this. What matters right now is that all of the kraggons have been blasted into small bits, and Timothy is holding his remaining air in as he backs away into the oxygen bubble.

He hears Nisha laugh from next to him, and Timothy catches sight of her stumbling back with awful wounds on her body and a wide-eyed satisfied look on her face. He stares at her a bit, takes in her dishevelled, excited appearance, and Timothy swallows. He reaches for his digistruct device and fumbles around with the display before he grabs at a syringe he’s been saving up.

Turning around to face Nisha, Timothy quietly makes his way over to her and she’s giving out breathless giggles now.

Uncharacteristically, it sounds sweet coming from Nisha.

Then she’s looking at him now, still giggling, but she’s _definitely_ looking at him curiously. She’s breathing heavily, stealing in deep gulps of oxygen from the bubble, and he swallows. “I—um, health?” Timothy says and offers the syringe to Nisha, and she’s staring at it for a bit before she’s righting herself up.

She’s so damn _small_ in comparison to him, and it was always like that. Timothy has always been taller than everyone else, not just because of his surgery to look like Jack, but now he’s bigger than Nisha as well and it’s… weird.

It’s weird to go from skinny, lanky to muscular and built.

Nisha laughs one more time, breaking him out of his thoughts, and she rolls her shoulders. “Thanks tiger.” Nisha says, words actually sincere, and Timothy watches her take the syringe and inject it into her veins.

The effect is instantaneous, and Timothy watches as the wounds close up and as Nisha looks livelier now. She looks up at Timothy as she removes the empty syringe and throws it out the bubble, lets it float off into space, and he wonders if space littering will be an issue here.

“You still owe me, kid.” Nisha tells him, and it takes Timothy some time to realise what she’s actually talking about.

“Oh—I mean, this isn’t— isn’t about the – the owing, thing, you just, know, how—how if you _die_ he’ll… I mean, not that I don’t _care_ I mean…” he bumbles, hands waving in the air, and Nisha snorts.

She settles her hands on her hips and tilts her head when Janey starts talking because someone tried to pull the lever, but Nisha’s focus is clearly not on her at all. He looks down at Nisha and presses his thumbs together, and she shakes his head. “I know it ain’t, but I’m gonna hold your lil’ debt close, kid.”

Timothy doesn’t doubt her.

* * *

Despite what Timothy believed, most of the hunters don’t really… know how to drive—or don’t like doing it on the moon at least. Fragtrap is, well, a Claptrap. Wilhelm nearly drives them to their death when they try to get him to drive and Aurelia is the one to narrowly save them from death. Athena isn’t at all comfortable driving on the moon, and Aurelia doesn’t want to try either.

That leaves Nisha and Timothy as potential drivers, and he lets Nisha try first because he’s… not that certain himself. Thankfully, she doesn’t do anything like drive them to their death or into pain or whatever. Actually, Nisha is a very, very controlled driver and Timothy watches her from the passenger seat.

Her features are calm as she drives them around, Timothy having the map open so that he can lead them around. Behind them, Athena’s sitting in the gun seat and everyone else is sitting on various parts of the moon buggy. It’s not really meant for six people, but they’re making due with what they have.

Timothy taps over the parts of the map that haven’t been discovered yet, and Nisha glances over at him once or twice to make sure she isn’t going the wrong way. He traces over the map with his thumb to try and figure out, roughly, where to go, and Nisha’s humming next to him.

There’s no radio on the moon buggy, which is a slight shame because he’s sure that they would have benefitted from it. But then again, maybe they’re better off without it when he brings it up to Janey and he hears her sneer from the ECHOcomm. _“Radio’s made up of mostly greasy, dumb white Elpish guys tryin’ to make money.”_ She sneers out, and Timothy has to wonder how one person can hate someone else so badly.

Nisha’s snickering though, obviously amused, and Timothy’s not going to lie and say that he’s not amused. He looks over to Wilhelm and bites his lower lip to try not to laugh at the small little ashamed blush on Wilhelm’s face.

He leans back against his seat and lets Nisha drive the rest of the way because it’s a straight drive then, and it’s weirdly… nice; yeah, nice is the word he’s looking for here. It’s weirdly nice to sit down and stare at the weird environments of the moon.

Sure the Shugguraths are the things of nightmares and Timothy never wants to see one ever again but, it’s kind of nice sitting next to Nisha as she hums and sometimes sings under her breath while watching the world go by.

“Hey,” Nisha calls out and Timothy quietly hums in response, “you know how to drive, Jack?” he shakes his head, remembers that Nisha isn’t focusing on him as she drives, and he lets out a hummed ‘no’ in response. Nisha snorts. “You sure you dunno how to drive, or are you sayin’ that so you don’t have to swap and drive?”

Timothy sinks into his seat as best he can and Nisha’s chortling. “Thought so.” She says. “Everyone! Up and at ‘em, we got scavs to kill and I am _damn ready_ for a fight.” She yells out when she comes to a sudden and rough stop to their destination and everyone has to grab at the car tightly so that they don’t get flung out.

Maybe Timothy should try and drive.

[He does when they have to turn around and go back to Janey because Nisha shoves him into the driver seat with a laugh to see how badly Timothy drives. She stops laughing when Timothy loses control of the vehicle quickly, and she and Athena are scrambling to try and save him and the car. Nisha takes care of driving duty from then on.]

* * *

Concordia’s… not really what he’s expecting. He expects an actual city, pretty and sprawling like the ones he reads in his books/ebooks, the ones that romanticise the moon and the history of Elpis for an interesting fantasy-scifi story.

What he gets instead is a plain looking area with a lot of buildings lumped together, and death hazards around for some reason. Nurse Nina is amazing, however, and even though Timothy doesn’t have difficulties talking around he’s still a bit smitten. There’s something fantastic in the blunt way she holds herself, uncaring of the world around her while being funny in her own way, that makes Timothy want to be her friend.

“That the kinda girl ya into?” Nisha asks and she leans against Timothy’s side, and he goes completely rigid as to avoid having her fall down. “Calm down tiger, you’re no fun when you’re stressed like this, huh?” Still, he can’t bring himself to relax and Nisha shakes her head. “You still didn’t answer me.”

Nurse Nina isn’t paying attention to them as she treats a scav that got shot to hell and back, actually properly treating them in a way that won’t leave any funky aftereffects like the hypos, and Timothy shakes his head. “No,” he admits, “she—I wanna be her friend, you know? She’s just the kinda person you just… wanna be friends with!”

Nisha lets out a grunt in response, and Timothy lets himself be her wall for a small bit before everyone is straightening up and actually heading out into Concordia. He almost wishes he could see the Customstrap so that he could flip it off, but he’s distracted by Nisha grabbing his elbow again and dragging him away to the bar.

 

To where he meets his dream girl, and his heart is fluttering quickly in his chest.

 

He’s the one that answers Moxxi when she asks them questions, the one that stutters and stammers that _“I mean, I don’t doubt you, but are you— are you sure we’re not… dating? You know? Going out?”_ and Moxxi’s smiling at him with something nice and amused in her face.

She doesn’t dismiss him, but she doesn’t really take Timothy up on his very obvious offers either and instead focuses on talking to Wilhelm and then talking to Athena when she begins to control the conversation.

Next to Timothy, Nisha is sitting on top of one of the bar stools and her hands are curled into tight fists that shake atop the bar and he doesn’t notice.

* * *

They have a lot more work to do after that. It’s as if everyone and their shitty dad is wanting them to do something for them, and they’re all running around outside on Elpis and in Concordia itself to do everything they need to do. A small part of Timothy reminds him that he has to still save the moon from the laser that is currently trying to tear it in half, and another part of him also says that it’s, weirdly enough, barely affecting the moon.

Which is… weird. Why is it that the only thing the laser seems to do is make the moon shake all over, like a moon-wide earthquake? … Or, moonquake? Maybe moonquake applies here—is moonquake even a word? He’s going to have to go and check la-

“ _OI,_ Jack, pay attention!” Nisha yells, and Timothy is snapping back to reality to see a lunatic about to land down on him—

The lunatic’s shot then—it’s not fatal, but it definitely catches him midair and gives Timothy time to aim proper and blow the guy’s dick off. He holds back the self-satisfied smile at the state of the lunatic that pitifully floats in the air and he looks over to where Nisha is fighting off her own group of scavs.

She seems to be doing fine, but still—Timothy ends up summoning his digital-selves right where Nisha is, and he grins when they blast those assholes off into space before they’re disappearing and reappearing next to Timothy to go and shoot up a few more baddies.

They seem to breed like skags, or rabbits even, and Timothy wonders where they are all coming from. As well, where are all the women? It’s weird to think that in a moon this big with apparently a zillion people there’s nothing but male baddies or murderers.

He shakes his head and tries not to think about it as he switches over to a TORGUE shotgun to go and make someone explode.

Within moments of their arrival, they clear the area and Timothy is left staring at the corpses that all surround him. He’s heard stories of vault hunters, of how they are crazy determined to not die and to kill, and Timothy thinks he finally gets why people are so damn scared of them. Nothing seems to slow them down, and nothing seems to freeze them either.

“Vault hunters are the worst.” Timothy says out loud, and he nearly yells when Nisha slams down in front of him. “HOLYSHIT.”

She cackles at that and straightens up, hands on her hips and head tilted back. “Chill, kid, it’s just me. You were zonin’ out there; what’cha thinking about?” she waits patiently for Timothy calm his quickly-beating heart, and he exhales and slumps his shoulders.

“I’m thinking about, you know, the mission and how—how we’re weirdly… strong?” he ends it with a shrug. “I mean have you—like, I can make the scavs chill ooout like hell and they’ll just freeze and bam! You break ‘em!” he punches his own palm for extra effect, and Nisha snickers at him. “But then we don’t get frozen. Isn’t that weird?”

Nisha stops when he says that and stares at him for a while. She opens her mouth for a bit, looks around, then closes her mouth again. “…huh.”

“And like! The laser, right? We’re supposed to be scared of the thing but, helloooo, nothing’s happening to Elpis?”

She snaps her fingers and points at him. “I hate the fact that you’re making a good point there.” Nisha says, before she slaps Timothy gently on the chest. “C’mon, got places to be, things to do, people to **_kill.”_**

“Please don’t kill any kittens and we’ll be fine.” Timothy says without thinking, and Nisha looks like she’s about to burst out into laughing.

“I won’t, handsome.”

He doesn’t know if she’s actually making a promise to him or not, but that’s the best he’s going to get.

* * *

When they head back to Concordia, Timothy ends up hanging out as Moxxi’s bar. She’s there, much to his delight, and he manages to take up a bit of her time to talk to her. She’s polite enough, and she humours Timothy when he starts stuttering and bumbling in an attempt to flirt with her.

Sometimes, Moxxi flirts back with him and her voice dips low; she bends down to show off to Timothy and to fluster him, and then she’s straightening her back and snickering to herself at how red his face is.

As it is, everyone else is busy negotiating mission rewards or whatever, and Timothy isn’t really comfortable around any of the Concordians so he just… hangs out in the bar and drinks the non-alcoholic drinks that Moxxi kindly gives to him.

He thinks he’s actually getting the confidence to talk to her properly when Nisha comes along, all tense and agitated and Timothy’s not sure what happened.

It may be that she just really, really hates talking to Moxxi. That seems to be the case before, and it seems to be the case now as she glares at the woman and she glares back. Without much of a word to each other, Moxxi goes and pours a glass of her strongest drink and slams it down for Nisha and gets a growl in response.

“Here you go, sugar.” Moxxi says before she’s going to the backroom, and Timothy turns to face Nisha curiously as she slides onto a stool next to him and begins downing the booze she’s just… given.

Everything in Nisha’s body screams of a woman completely tense and uncomfortable; she’s squaring her shoulders every time she sits up properly before she hunches over far too much to really be healthy for her back.

“Nisha?” Timothy asks, and she shoots a glare his way and he immediately brings his hands up. “Okay! Okay, no talking, got—got’cha.”

The Bartrap ends up giving her two bottles of booze when Nisha barks at him and then brings her whip out [holy shit] to put the fear of death in the little guy. She pours for herself three more glasses, mostly because she ‘wants to drown the annoyance away’ and Timothy doesn’t know if that’s healthy, too.

“What _did_ Jack see in her?” Nisha growls out, her distaste of Moxxi showing, and Timothy frowns. “Freakin’—freakin hell. Lying deceitful woman with _damn clown makeup—_ she looks **freaky!** How did she ever date him!?”

He doesn’t know what’s going on. Timothy doesn’t remember the last time Jack even mentioned Moxxi in a way that isn’t full of regret or upset. “Um,” Timothy begins and Nisha’s hand lashes out and grabs his sweatshirt, “ ** _um?!”_** he repeats, and Nisha stares into his face, his eyes, with a snarl on her lips and a glare on her face.

“ _Damn it,_ kid!” she shoves him away then, and she’s – okay, Timothy doesn’t know what’s going on with her but he decides not to ask. Nisha lifts her hat up and puts it on the counter, runs her hands through her hair, and Timothy thinks that she’s prettier without her hat. Nisha’s putting it back on soon enough and then she looks at Timothy, brows furrowing as she opens and closes her mouth.

Nisha’s sitting up a bit more and there’s a large frown on her face. She stares at her glass for a bit then at Timothy’s messed up sweatshirt, then back at his face again and she opens and closes her mouth a few more times.

When Nisha lets out a groan of frustration, Timothy speaks. “Are you trying to figure out how to apologise?” she looks away. “It’s – you know you could just say sorry, right?”

“Don’t _push it,_ Jack.”

“Okay! Okay.” He shakes his head. “I accept it, by the way. I mean, I really shouldn’t; you didn’t _apologise_ but—“

“ **Jack.”**

“Okay! Okay, I’ll shut up now.”

Nisha snorts. “‘bout time.”

She seems a bit more relaxed after her weird outburst, and Timothy doesn’t think to question it. People are complicated and sometimes the oddest things make them mad and the simplest things make them feel marginally better.

Timothy takes a sip of his soda and Nisha laughs at him, pokes fun at how he isn’t drinking, and Timothy dares her to down both bottles without using the glass.

She does it, and immediately has to leave to puke it all up and the Bartrap is staring at him with its unblinking eye.

“Shut up.”

“AWRIGHT COPPA’, BUT I DIDN’ SAY ANYT’IN’.”

“Seriously. Please. Just shut up.”

* * *

They go in and out of Concordia a bit for their work. Jack’s still bitching at them to get to Helios which, fair, but also Elpis is pretty okay and Jack did somehow live so. They have time.

Everything’s doing okay—that is, until they have to get the military AI, Felicity, and Timothy thinks he feels sick to his stomach. When they have to put her in the constructor bot, Timothy hesitates and Nisha, who is leaning against the console, glances up at him and adjusts her hat to look at him better.

“What’s the hold up?” Wilhelm asks when they still haven’t put Felicity, who is screaming and yelling at them, into the constructor bot yet. When Timothy can’t answer, Nisha does it for him. “Just give us a second, you impatient fart!” she yells back and Wilhelm shrugs.

Athena and Aurelia don’t get themselves involved which, bless. Though, when Timothy glances over to her, Athena’s body is tense and she’s fidgeting uncomfortably. She shifts her feet and looks down at them, and Aurelia is cocking her head to the side to stare down at Athena. Her own finger is tapping at her chin incessantly, her foot tapping as well, and Timothy looks over to Nisha.

“I can’t do it.” He whispers, and Nisha raises an eyebrow. “I can’t—I can’t do this to Felicity.” He admits, softly, so that no one else hears him and he doesn’t know why he’s telling Nisha this.

She tilts her head to the side. “Janey, Moxxi- they live on this crapsack moon, right?” Nisha responds, equally as soft as to avoid attention, and Timothy is oddly grateful. “They’re gonna die.”

“What?” Timothy tries not to yelp and, well, he’s not successful given that Wilhelm is staring holes into him now.

“Big laser, kiddo.” Nisha hums out. “If it doesn’t kill ‘em today, maybe tomorrow. Or the day after tomorrow. A week later.”

“But—what about Felicity—“

“She’s military.” Nisha suddenly sounds cold. “They scream at the people who are wrong, and then kill them.” Timothy furrows his brow and then stares down at the console, at the small little device he has that’ll make him force Felicity into her new body, and he swallows.

“I feel bad.” Timothy says.

“I don’t. Military are mass-murderers.” Nisha responds, and Timothy doesn’t look at her.

He puts Felicity in, and she’s shrieking like a demon at them for it. [Maybe he shouldn’t have done it, but Nisha looks proud of him.]

* * *

They’re back at Concordia and Timothy immediately goes to Moxxi, loud and booming with music and full of people dancing because it’s ‘nighttime’, with the full intention of drinking to forget all his guilt over Felicity. Nisha follows after him, though, and she steals his drinks and drags him by the elbows to the dancefloor instead. “C’mon, handsome!” Nisha yells out over the loud and thrumming music now. “Dance with me!”

He wants to say no, but Nisha already has him on the dancefloor. He tries to protest, but she’s gripping at his hips and leading him along in the dance, and Timothy loses all the words in his throat when Nisha grinds against him and distracts him so wholly.

The music is getting to him now, now that he isn’t thinking about Felicity and is instead focusing on the way Nisha rolls against him and guides him along the dancing drunk idiots. She holds him close by his hips, her hands never wander, and Timothy grabs at her elbows and tries to grind back against her.

It’s not… graceful, but they’re beginning to sweat in the thrum and heat of the distance; everything outside is dark in an attempt to stimulate the night sky or whatever, and to let some people sleep, and the darkness extends to Moxxi’s bar.

Lights flash, colourful and bright, and they stand stark against the total blackness of the entire place. Nisha’s completely at home in this wild environment; the type of environment where everyone is dancing uncontrollably or fighting, rutting and grinding like they have nothing to worry about.

He thinks this _really_ fits her and doesn’t fit him at all.

Underneath his jeans, completely commando, Timothy feels himself throb and get wet with the whole thrum and loudness of the entire situation and Nisha’s smirking up at him.

Nisha’s gorgeous in a way that can kill him. He swallows, eyes focusing on her mouth, and something in Nisha changes when she notices Timothy staring. Her lips flatten into a line and she pulls him away, out of the bar and among the sea of dancing people, and they’re heading over to the hotel where they’re staying at.

“Ni—?” Timothy begins, and Nisha interrupts. “ _You_ need sleep.” His brows furrow and he swallows at the way Nisha says it.

“I’m not tired.” He argues and—he honestly isn’t. If his clock is correct, it’s only eleven, and Timothy’s awful sleep schedule won’t let him sleep until two in the morning. Sometimes, if he’s lucky, he can fall asleep at midnight. “Somethings up—seriously, Nisha, you’re _really_ bad at this whole—self-expression thing!”

“I’m not bad at _anything,_ tiger. Least of all myself.” Nisha retorts, and Timothy’s frowning at the back of her head. He tugs his hand away from her, watches her stumble and catches Nisha before she falls off to her death in an abyss. “Now that was _rude as hell.”_

Timothy ignores her glare. “Seriously, what’s _up_ with you? You can’t just— _grind_ against me, flirt with me, and then – do whatever the hell this is!”

“Things aren’t always that damn personal.”

“Then why not just _kiss me? Fuck me?_ Sex is sex!” Timothy nearly yells and the only thing that stops him is that someone might hear him and… he’ll be really embarrassed if he’s heard saying those things. Oh, and Jack might dock it from his pay or something. “I mean, not that—not that that’s what I thought you wanted to do but—you can’t just do _that_ and then give me whiplash! … Or, or you can—but you’ve been—just say something before I sound _bad_ okay?!”

Nisha snorts. “You already sound pretty damn bad.” He deflates—that… wasn’t his intention. All he wanted to say to her is ‘stop leading me on’, not that whole dumb little rant. “Luckily for _you,_ I get what you’re saying. But seriously, tiger, I ain’t gonna take advantage of someone sad. That’s low, even for me.”

“I’m not _sad!”_ Timothy barely holds himself back that time. “Okay—Okay I am! But I’m _aware_ that I can say no if I wanted to. I _can_ say no; it’s kind of hard not to gain the confidence to do that when everyone on this moon is an asshole!”

Nisha inhales sharply through her nose, and Timothy’s shaking. “Just—you get angry with Mox around, then you get angry at Jack because of Mox, then you – you’ve been leading me on, right? And it’s because I look like Jack-”

“I think,” Nisha says, her voice grave and dark, “I’m in love with you, and that pisses me off more than anything in the world.”

Oh.

“I don’t do _love,_ kid. I do _lust._ I’m all about being _in lust_ with someone.”

_Oh._

“So I actually want to _respect_ boundaries which, clearly, hasn’t been going well for me.”

He stares at her with wide-eyes and Nisha’s lips twist into a scowl. Everything’s quiet for a bit, save for their heavy breathing, and Timothy’s… he’s feeling a lot of emotions right now, most of which he can’t explain, and his chest feels weirdly tight.

Breathing in through his nose, Timothy shifts on his feet and brings his hands together in front of him. He presses his indexes together then twiddles his thumbs, and Nisha raises an eyebrow. “I—okay.” He says, voice soft, and Nisha’s straining forward to hear him. “I still… I still want to have sex with you.” Timothy admits quietly, and Nisha is staring at him blankly. “Maybe this isn’t the right time to—no, no. Now is definitely the right time to ask for it.”

He swallows. “C’mon. I mean, if you don’t want it, you can just say no. I don’t— _know_ if I love you back,” Nisha growls at the word ‘love’, but Timothy keeps going, “but I think it’d be… nice to see how things go. And also, you um... you made me really horny, so if you’d kind of help that’d be… nice?”

“You’re an idiot,” is immediately followed by, “yeah, yeah. I’ll have a night with you kid. We’ll see how things go after that.”

Anxiety bursts in his chest, and Timothy hopes he hasn’t made a mistake.

* * *

They’re in the hotel they’re staying at and Nisha’s leading him back to their rooms. They have three rooms, each for two of them, and Timothy’s grateful for that because he really _does not_ want them to hear him hopefully having sex with Nisha.

When they’re back to the room, Nisha leads him to his own bed and pushes him down on it. The bed dips slightly as she joins him, her hat being discarded onto the floor and her fingers working on removing her own clothes, and Timothy’s not sure what to do with his own hands.

“Wanna take the jacket and sweatshirt off?”

Something grabs at his throat tightly. “N-no.” Nisha stares at him for his stuttering, but she doesn’t push. Instead, he watches her as she takes off her jacket and then her own shirt. She’s wearing a sports bra and Timothy… kind of finds that cute, even though it makes total sense for her to wear it. He watches her remove it, watches Nisha stand up to remove her jeans and he doesn’t get to see what kind of underwear she wears.

She’s… toned. That’s obvious enough; she’s fit and strong, and Timothy immediately wants to bury his face in her hairless vulva. “Is it… weird that I expected you to have hair on—on— down—down there?”

“On my pussy.” Nisha says for him, and Timothy flushes horribly. “Hair makes it hard for rough sex.” She answers, and Timothy lets out a soft ‘oh’ of understanding.

“I should… take my jeans off, then!”

She climbs onto the bed, places her hands on his hips, and Timothy jolts. “Listen, kid, I’m gonna give you an offer. Already naked here, so a bit late for it but eh. Are you _sure_ ya wanna go on with this?” Not trusting himself to speak without his voice cracking, Tim nods. “Say ‘no’ and I’ll stop.”

He doesn’t know why she’s asking so much, but he appreciates it.

* * *

 

“It’s Timothy.”

“What?”

“My—I’m not. I’m not _Jack._ I’m Timothy—he’s. He’s Jack. But he’s like me down there but he’s—I’m Timothy.” He’s fumbling to explain himself, and Nisha moves up his body and pushes a hair out of his forehead.

She thumbs underneath his eye and it hits Timothy that some tears did escape him. “These _aren’t_ the good kinda tears.” Nisha says, her voice subdued. “M’gonna make you cry from how good it feels; that’s a promise, and Nisha Kadam _always_ makes her partners feel good.”

There’s a part of Timothy that… that breaks open, and he’s biting his lower lip as he starts shaking. Then, he bursts with laughter at that, at the fact that Nisha is looking at him with a smile and raised eyebrows, at the fact that she _promises_ to make him cry from how good it feels.

It’s so weird.

 

 

* * *

She dresses him up after she’s done giving him multiple orgasms [ _holy shit_ ], and Nisha wipes away the dried tear stains on his face.

Timothy’s looking at her, uncertain, because he—he really wants to cuddle her, and Nisha stares at him and raises an eyebrow. He gulps and looks down, then looks up at her and makes a hugging motion with his arms, and Nisha sighs and settles in next to her.

Immediately, Timothy turns to face her and hugs her close, buries his face in his shoulder, and Nisha’s awkwardly petting his back. “Seriously, I don’t do cuddles.” Nisha says, far too late, and Timothy harumpfs against her.

“Too late, cuddling.” Timothy grouches out as he peeks over to her, and Nisha snorts. “C’mooon, just lemme have this, pleeease? My legs feel like—like jelly. I have never cum that much in my whole _life._ I wanna _sleeeep_ for years.”

Nisha’s giving him a toothy smile, and Timothy can’t believe he’s getting to see it. “I don’t do this whole domestic shit, kid.”

“You don’t look it either—not that, that’s bad. You just look like you’d prefer… killing. People.

“Ain’t wrong.”

“True.” Timothy curls around her a bit more, noses at her shoulder and softly exhales. “I um… I still don’t know how I feel.”

“Hm.”

“But Jack—definitely wants you.”

Nisha hums again. “Yeah,” she agrees, “he does.”

He breathes in deep, and his heart slams against his ribcage as he tries to speak. “We can… we can see what happens when this is all over? I’m mostly scared of _dying_ so my emotions are kind of a mess.” Nisha laughs. “So I’d… like that.”

“Yeah,” Nisha says, “we can see what happens in the end, kid. Don’t know jack _shit_ about all this domestic lil’ love bullshit, but I’m always willing to try new things.”

They’re quiet, and Timothy thinks Nisha’s about to fall asleep before something hits him. He starts giggling and he hugs Nisha tighter, and she stares at him. “What?”

“You said jack shit. Get it? _Jack_ shit.”

“Tim,” Nisha says, blankly, “go to sleep before I shoot you in the leg.”

“Okay, okay, mean.” But he’s smiling into her shoulder as Nisha drifts off and, even though he’s quite sure they really should’ve combined beds for this, he ends up falling asleep too.

Maybe things will look up at the end of this ordeal.


End file.
